Carry bag



United States Patent CARRY BAG Albin J. Mengis, Philadelphia, Pa.,assignor to Wolf Brothers, Inc., Philadelphia, Pa'., a corporation ofPennsylvania Application December 29, 1953, Serial No. 400,920

1 Claim. (Cl. 229--54) This invention relates to an. improvement-in thetype of bag generally known as a carry bag and, more particularly, to animproved relation between the finger open ings and the locking flap of acarry bag.

In carry bags of the type disclosed herein in which a tongue is foldedthrough finger openings in the bag panels, there occasionally occurs inthe manufacture of a bag: an incomplete cutting of the cut lines formingthe locking tongue in the bag closing flap. When this occurs the user ofthe bag experiences considerable difiiculty infolding the tongue throughthe finger openings inasmuch as the folding cannot be accomplished untilthe incompletely cut material has been separated by tearing.

It is an object of this invention to so arrange the relative positionsof the edge of the finger opening and the cut line forming the tongue inthe closing flap that, as the user of the bag forces the tongue throughthe finger opening, the out line forming the tongue in the flap passesover or is coincident with, for at least an initial portion of itslength, the edge of the finger opening and thus, as the tongue is forcedthrough the finger opening, a shearing action will take place over theedge of the finger opening which will serve to part any remainingstrands of material which may exist as a result of incomplete cutting ofthe tongue forming out line when the bag was manufactured.

This desirable improvement is accomplished without incurring an acuteangle at either corner of the edge of the flap or the tongue adjacent tothe cut line and the disadvantages which would result therefrom.

It is a further object of the invention to provide the foregoingadvantageous bag form without necessitating the removal of a chip orother form of surplus paper which is highly undesirable and producescomplications in the manufacturing process.

Having now indicated in a general way the nature and purpose of thisinvention, I will proceed with a detailed description of a preferredembodiment thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a plan view of one side of the paper bag embodying theinvention with the bag closing flap in an open position;

Figure 2 is a plan view of the bag shown in Figure 1 with the bagclosing flap folded downwardly; and

Figure 3 is a plan view of the bag shown in Figure 1 with the closingflap folded downwardly and the tongue folded through the finger openingand turned upwardly, the bag being formed in a condition for carrying.

Referring to the drawings, the bag includes a front panel 2 and a rearpanel 4. In the embodiment shown, the front and rear panels join at thebottom of the bag and are joined together by means of a pasted flap 6 atthe sides of the bag. As will be hereinafter evident, however, any typeof bag construction may be employed in conjunction with the presentinvention so long as front and rear bag panels are involved.

A reinforcing patch 8 is attached to the inside of the upper portion ofthe front panel 2 and a reinforcing patch 10 is: attached to the insideof the rear panel 4. Aligning finger openings 12 are cut through thefront and rear panels and their reinforcing patches. An extension 14 ofthe rear panel 4 provides a closing flap. The reinforcingv patch 10 hasan extended portion 16 which is applied to the closing fiap 14.

The upper and lower edges of' the finger openings are formed byoutwardly bowed generally horizontally extending cut lines 18 and 20..While these lines are shown as: bowed, they may, if desired, besubstantially parallel. The sides of. the finger openings are. formed bycut lines 22 and 24 which. are in converging relation in the directionof the upper end of the bag and which form angles of approximately 20with the longitudinal axis of the bag. The lines 18 and 20' each jointhe lines 22 and 24 through radiused corners which are so formed inorder to avoid the occurrence of stress concentrations which wouldotherwise exist if the corners were sharp or square.

A locking tongue. 26 is formed in the flap by a pair of spaced cut linestherein. Each of the cut lines extends perpendicular to the edge of theflap as indicated at 28 in the region of the edge of the flap. The cutlines thereafter each diverge as indicated at 30 as they extend into theflap. The cutv lines then terminate in inwardly turned arcuate portions32 which form ears 34 at the: inward portions of each side of thetongue.

A. fold line 15 separates the flap 14 from the panel 4 of the bag, Thefiap- 14 is of such a length that, when the flapis folded over the openend of the bag, the edge 37 of the flap extends transversely of thefinger openings 12 coincident with the widest portion thereof asindicated generally by the numerals 38. The portions 28 of the cut lineforming the tongue 26 are spaced apart by a distance slightly greaterthan the maximum width of the finger opening. This spacing provides asmall dimension between the finger opening and the out line 28 asindicated at 36. This dimension is only sufiicient to provide. aproduction tolerance, which may be of the order of a sixteenth of aninch, to prevent any possibility that the portion 28 of the cut lineforming the tongue will overlap the finger openings 12 and permit theedge 37 of the flap 14 adjacent to one of the cut lines 28 fromextending in overlapping relation with the finger openings 12. Such anoverlapping relation would be highly undesirable for appearance reasonsand in view of the possibility of the edge of the paper cutting thefingers of the person carrying the bag and having his fingers passingthrough the finger openings 12.

As shown in Figure 3, after the closing flap 14 has been folded over thebag and the tongue 26 folded through the finger openings 12, the cars 34will engage the outer surface of the back panel 4 and serve to retainthe tongue in a folded up position. The upwardly converging formation ofthe finger openings and the inwardly diverging formation of the cutlines 30 provide large areas of overlap between the cars 34 and the rearpanel 4 of the bag insuring secure locking of the bag handle in a foldedor carry condition.

When the tongue 26 is being folded from the position shown in Figure 2to the position shown in Figure 3, it will, of course, separate from itsadjacent relation with the flap 14. Due to the substantially overlappingrelation of the out line 28 and the adjacent edges 22 and 24 of thefinger openings, this parting occurs for the initial separation of thetongue from the adjacent portion of the flap 14 to the region of the outline 28 in such a manner that, if in the process of bag manufacture thecut lines were not completely out through the material forming the bagpanel and the reinforcing patches thereon, a shearing action will occurover the edges 22 and 24 of the finger opening 12.

As the parting progresses along the cut line from the region 30 thereof,any portion of the cut line which is not completely out will be drawnover by the flexibility of the material forming the flap 14 so that theregion of the cut line which has been incompletely cut lies over theedge 22 or 24 of the finger opening. Thus a shearing action will alsooccur in either of these regions if either cut line has not beencompletely cut through and the bag material not completely severed whenthe bag was manufactured.

Incomplete cutting of the arcuate portions 32 is less critical withregard to the folding of the locking flap through the finger openingsfor the reason that the direction of forces which exist in the flapWhile it is being folded through the finger openings are such as to actprogressively along any remaining uncut material in the cut lines 32 andthus tearing of any remaining uncut material in this portion of the cutline will occur much more readily than it would occur in the region 28or in the region 30 of the cut line. Thus the shearing action which isso desirably provided in the region 28 of the cut line and is alsodesirably provided in the region 30 of the out line is not sonecessarily provided in the regions 32 of the cut line.

From the foregoing it will be evident that a bag construction isprovided by the present invention in which a shearing action occursacross the portion of the out line forming the locking tongue adjacentto the outer edge of the closing flap when the tongue is folded throughthe finger openings. This desirable condition is provided by'a bagstructure which has no portion of the flap 14 extending over the fingeropenings and also has no acute angles in either the flap 14 or thetongue 26 existing after the tongue has been folded through the fingeropening. Furthermore, the sides 22 and 24 of the finger opening areplaced at such an angle as to provide maximum area of overlap of thelocking ears 34 with the bag panel without unduly limiting the spacewithin the finger opening. This advantageous structure is furtherprovided without the necessity of any chip removal during bagproduction. Thus it will be apparent that the particular relation of theparts described provides an improved bag structure having variousdesirable qualities not heretofore recognized.

It will be evident, as previously noted, that bags having variouslyformed bag panels may incorporate the finger opening and locking flaprelations disclosed herein. It will further be evident that variousother modifications may be made to the embodiment of the inventiondisclosed herein without departing from the scope of the invention asset forth in the following claim.

What is claimed is:

A carry bag comprising connected front and back panels separated attheir upper ends to form an opening for the bag, aligning apertures insaid panels adjacent to but spaced from the open end of the bag, saidapertures being of generally elongated form and having rounded corners,a closing flap formed as an extension of one of said panels at the openend of the bag, said flap being of such a length that when the flap isfolded over the open end of the bag the edge of the flap will extendtransversely of said apertures, and a locking tongue formed in said flapby spaced out lines therein, said cut lines extending perpendicular tothe edge of the flap in the region of the edge of the flap andthereafter diverging as they extend back into the flap and terminatingin inwardly turned arcuate ear forming portions, the spacing between thecut lines at the edge of the flap being substantially equal to the widthof said apertures in the region of the edge of the flap, whereby, whenthe tongue is folded through said apertures, progressive shearing actionwill take place along said out lines commencing at the edge of the flapwhich will serve to part any remaining strands of material which mayexist as a result of incomplete cutting of the cut lines when the bagwas manufactured.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,234,180 Lackey Mar. 11, 1941 2,679,350 Soffa May 25, 1954 2,679,351Sofia May 25, 1954

